


Monster

by rudbeckia



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Awkward First Times, Camping, First Kiss, First Time Blow Jobs, Kylux Positivity Week 2020, M/M, Outdoor Sex, Pre-TFA, Soft Kylux, Summer Romance, brief description of sex, kylux positivity week 2.0
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:42:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25030327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Armitage Hux is officially on vacation with his guardian, but has actually been entered into a competition to survive in the wild and make his way back to safety. Rae thinks he needs to toughen up and get some experience of fending for himself.Ben Solo has been entered into the same competition by his family in the hope that it will give him some time alone to reflect on his life.Ben hates to lose. He finds a way to remove competition, but Armitage is different. He decides to team up with the hot redhead instead. Who knows. Maybe they can help each other out.And there may or may not be a monster in the lake.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 9
Kudos: 55
Collections: Kylux Positivity Week 2.0





	Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts: summer romance/first kiss

“It’s character building.”

Rae Sloane marched across the field with Armie lagging behind, slipping here and there on the wet ground under the weight of camping gear. Shivering, hair plastered to his face, feeling water seep into his boots, Armie tried and failed to catch up. Their assigned place lay between two occupied pitches. Armie let the gear tumble to the ground. 

Rae watched him from under the hood of her parka. “We can eat once you get the tent up.”

Armie nodded, rainwater dripping down his face and off the tip of his nose. He shivered and gripped his arms to his chest to quell the trembling before Rae noticed, then cleared everything except the tent to the side of the pitch. Fingers slippery with rain and stiff with cold, he fumbled the tent catch so that when it popped and the tent sprung up to its full size, it buffeted him. He landed on his backside among the parts of the cooking stove. 

He looked up to see Rae shaking her head at him. “Get up. Secure the tent like I showed you so that we can get inside out of this karking weather.”

Armie laughed to hear Rae curse. Rae smiled at him and it felt like the rain eased and the clouds lightened. He rolled up onto his feet, locked the edges of the tent with mini grav-clamps, and watched as Rae fitted the parts of the stove together. “Go on.” Rae nodded towards the tent. “Get yourself warm and dry.”

When he emerged in clean, dry clothes, the rain had passed and Rae had discarded her parka, erected two camp stools and lit the stove. “Here,” she said, and Armie took over from her, heating two ration packs while Rae went into the tent to change.

The tents either side made Armie sneer a little. Their own modest fabric hemisphere, split inside by a single curtain into two chambers, was exactly as big as they needed. On the right was a gaudy tent Armie thought could be from a circus, with a high pointed peak and swooping panels in pink and lilac, as big as a barrack room inside, no doubt, and probably luxurious with cushions and blankets and camp cots. On the left, a rickety camper vehicle with a missing wheel, shored up with scrap. Armie huffed to himself. He and Rae had the right balance between comfort and function.

“Armie!”  
Armie heard the sizzling and took the ration packs off the heat before the insides were so hot the containers split and the contents were spoiled. Rae sat on the other low stool. “No. you eat up.” She handed her ration pack back to Armie. “Tomorrow you’ll have to fend for yourself. No food but what you can hunt or gather.”  
“I thought this was a vacation.” Armie slurped his first pack of lumpy broth quickly out of hunger.  
“I know you did,” Rae replied with a smile. “It’s not, but look for the positive and it might even feel like one.”  
“I suppose father isn’t here,” Armie said drily, and Rae laughed.

Meanwhile, Ben Solo reclined on a camp-cot, hugged a cushion and glared at his aunt Amilyn. “Why do I have to do this, again?”  
“Your mother thought it would help you gain a little perspective on life.” Amilyn looked softly at the boy. “You’re almost twenty and you’ve never had to fend for yourself.”  
“But why should I have to!”  
Amilyn frowned. “Ben, mind your tone. You’ll appreciate this one day. Back in the day, your mother and I—”  
“That was different. I heard the stories a million times but Alderaan isn’t here any more and—”  
“BEN!” Amilyn gritted her teeth and forced a smile. “Show a little sensitivity and respect. Please.”  
“Sorry, Aunt Amilyn.” Ben examined his fingernails. “I just thought you were taking me on a vacation. you and mom lied.”  
Amilyn “Look on this as a fun adventure away from your folks. You’ll enjoy it.”  
Ben grumbled. “Bet I won’t.”

“Present kit for inspection, lieutenant!”  
Rae’s voice was quiet but not to be disobeyed. Armie stood back from his pack, equipment laid out neatly on a ground sheet. Rae checked over everything and nodded.  
“Well done. I will drop you off and you will return here in three days.”  
“Yes, sir.” Armie nodded once and his hand fluttered almost into a salute before he caught himself. Rae leaned closer. “Be careful, Armie. This is not a friendly planet. You may encounter people who would do you harm if they knew who we were and where we came from.”  
Armie nodded again.

Ben prodded the backpack with his toes. “Do I have to carry all that?”  
“You do.” Amilyn sighed. “You never know what you might run into out there. It’s dangerous.”  
“I’m dangerous,” Ben replied.  
Amilyn grinned. “Sure you are, honey.”  
Ben rolled his eyes. “I am. Mom said so.”  
“Uh-huh. Han’ll drop you off and then all you have to do is make your way back here. Okay, sweetheart?”  
Amilyn ruffled Ben’s hair and he ducked away. “Don’t call me that. I’m not a kid any more.”  
The tent flap opened and a gruff voice called through. “Hey, kid, you ready?”  
Ben rolled his eyes again. Amilyn laughed.

The sun was up and promising a warm apology for the rain of the previous day by the time Rae walked out of the camping ground with Armie and led him over to a stocky, unsmiling young woman who stood beside a small transport. Rae pushed Armie forwards then turned and walked away. The woman pointed to the interior. Armie went inside. Relieved to be the only passenger, he chose a seat at the front. “You there,” he called through the open door. “How many competitors are there?”

“At least two.” A tall, broad-framed young man bounded into the cabin and crashed, grinning, into a seat at the back.  
Armie sneered at him. “Why waste your breath when you don’t know?”  
The lad scowled back and Armie looked away, disconcerted by the boy’s presence but unable to look at him and unwilling to apologise for his rudeness in case he made himself look weak. Two other people got on. The pilot slid the door closed with a screech and a thump, then climbed into the cockpit and they took off smoothly.

In the passenger cabin, nobody spoke. The journey seemed to take forever, although it can’t have been more than an hour. Armie stared off by studying the terrain below them through the forward viewports, but the pilot laughed at him and set the craft into a flight pattern that disorientated him so much that the only directions he was sure of were up and down.

Just as his stomach settled, the craft went into a downward spiral and landed in a clearing.  
“Out!” The pilot craned her neck to look at the passengers. “Get out. See you in a couple of days if you’re lucky. First one back wins.”  
“What do we win?” the dark haired lad asked.  
The pilot smiled. “Self-respect. Off you go.”

Armie marched down the ramp onto solid ground. The lad followed, pack over one shoulder. The first two competitors were already nowhere to be seen.

“Wanna stick together?”  
Armie frowned at the lad as the transport rose until it was a grey speck. “What for?”  
“Safety,” he replied.  
“Why should I care about your safety?” Armie snapped. “It’s a competition and you are going to lose.”  
The lad laughed. “I was talking about your safety. Not mine. Look out!”

Armie whirled in time to glimpse a blur of green and red moving fast towards him. He dropped onto his belly and felt wind waft in his hair as the creature swooped. He reached for his pack, and for the blaster inside, but before he could get to it he heard a buzz and a crackle and a swoosh and a thud. He looked around. On the ground beside him lay a creature unlike any he had ever seen, its head severed from its body, the would cauterised and still smoking slightly.

He pushed himself upright and stared at the lad. “How the kriff did you do that!”  
The lad grinned. “Tell me your name and I might show you.”  
“Armitage,” Armie said. “Armie. You saved my life. Why?”  
“Ben,” the lad said, holding out his hand. “Because I like your hair. Now, do you want to team up or not?”

Armie looked at the remains of the beast beside him and still considered saying no. But only for an instant. “All right.” He gripped Ben’s offered handshake for a couple of seconds, and Ben’s face lit up. “You wanna help carry that?” He pointed to the carcass. “Or eat rations tonight?”  
“Do you mean,” Armie said slowly, “that you intend to... to eat.” He pointed, failing to stifle his disgust. “That?”  
“Of course!” Ben prodded the scaly body. “My uncle taught me to cook stuff like this.”  
Armie shrugged off his discomfort and pulled a knife from his sleeve. “Well then,” he said. “No sense in carrying more than we can eat.”

Armie and Ben spent the next half hour pooling their resources and redistributing their packs. Armie carried the food, Ben carried the tools they’d need to make a shelter. For every essential item one carried, the other took its counterpart, and this reassured Armie that Ben could not simply abandon him. Armie walked a little behind Ben, knife within reach, just in case. 

Once clear of their landing site, Armie said, “You said you’d show me how you killed that thing.”  
“And I will,” Ben replied. “Later. Tell me about yourself. What are you doing here?”  
Armie tightened his lips into a thin line. “My guardian thought it would be character building. She said we were going on a camping vacation. So now I’m here.”

Ben guffawed. “Same, more or less. My mother and my aunt cooked this plan up and my father agreed to help make sure I got here.” Ben shook his head. Armie watched his long dark locks dance around his shoulders and imagined brushing them into something neater, feeling the strands slip between his fingers. It looked soft. “My aunt said to look for the positives. I never expected that to mean something as cute as you.”  
Armie tried hard not to smile at the flattery. “I bet you say that to all the skinny weaklings you meet.”  
Ben frowned at him and Armie felt like he was being searched. “No,” Ben said after an uncomfortable minute. “You’re not weak. You have a very... particular kind of strength.”

Before Armie could demand to know what Ben meant, Ben had turned and walked away though the trees. Armie followed, frowning at the foliage, wondering why in all the stars he was trusting this boy to lead. “How do you know where we’re going?” Armie called after Ben.  
Ben turned and grinned. “I just do! It’s a thing I can do. Catch up!”

Armie hurried and Ben slowed and soon they strolled side by side. The sun was well past its zenith and the still air between the trees was hot and muggy. Armie was glad of the shade from the canopy, despite the unsettling screeches and screams and squawks that came from creatures hidden high above them. Reluctantly, he admitted to himself that he was glad of Ben’s company.

”Hey, are you hungry? Tired?” Ben slowed down and pointed. “I think there’s a good campsite that way.”  
“I’m fine,” Armie said. “I’m stronger than I look.”  
Ben replied either _sure you are_ or _I’m sure you are._ Armie bristled but decided to believe the less offensive version.  
“Let’s look anyway.” Ben set off at about sixty degrees to the right of their previous path, crashing through the low, scrubby undergrowth and skidding downhill. Armie sighed and followed, feeling the burn in his feet where his socks and boots rubbed his heels and toes, and the ache in his belly that hadn’t been a problem until Ben mentioned hunger. Ben, Armie was equally irritated and delighted to find out, had been right. He had led them to an excellent spot to rest and recover before the next full day’s hike. 

They were in a clearing with flat grassy slope gently easing down to the bank of a small lake so round it looked like it might have been a crater. There was even a small island that might have been the central uplift from the ancient impact. A welcome breeze rippled the surface into silver and white sparkles, and the broken branches and trunks of years-old fallen trees saved them the bother of looking for firewood.

“You’re smiling,” Ben said. “You like it here.”  
“It’s adequate for our needs.” Armie set down his pack and stretched.  
Ben roared with laughter. “Admit it! I was right. You need to rest and this is perfect.”  
Armie grinned back. “Never. I bet there’s a monster living in that lake.”  
Ben smiled and huffed and pointed at the water. “Well you better get in there and save us from it, sweetheart. While I make dinner.”  
Armie shook his head. “Shelters up first. Then food. Then planning for tomorrow. Then sleep.”  
“Suit yourself,” Ben replied with a shrug. “I’m getting clean first. You should too.”

Armie almost stamped his foot. “Shelters first!” He searched the packs. Three times. “Ben, you took the overnight gear. where are the bivouacs?”  
“I left them behind,” Ben said, building a pyramid of dry sticks on a clear area of shingle. “Don’t need them.”  
“What if it rains overnight! We’ll get soaked! Probably die of exposure!”  
“Lighten up, Armie! We’ll be fine. I’ll help you build a shelter using branches and stuff if you’re scared of sleeping in the open.”  
“Ugh, my bivouac takes a few seconds to prepare. A shelter will take an age!” Armie stomped towards the nearest trees and looked up. “We need some of those leafy branches.”  
“We really don’t.” Ben waved Armie back over to where the fire was ready to be lit. “I promise.”

Armie sat on the log Ben had dragged over. “What if it’s cold?”  
“We can keep each other warm,” Ben said, leering and winking.  
“You...” Armie couldn’t find the words at first. “You karking asshole! What makes you think I’d huddle up with a stinking nerf-herder like you?”  
Ben sat close and grinned. “I think you like me. I can tell.”  
“I like nice men.” Armie moved further away.  
“It’s okay to admit it,” Ben said, moving closer again. “I happen to be a nice man. But you think I’m rough and you like it.”  
“You stink.”  
“So do you. And you said that already.” Ben moved a little further away from Armie and turned away. “Well, you go build your shelter and I’ll make food.”

Armie felt the disappointment rolling off Ben before he saw the young man’s cheeks redden. He watched for a few seconds as Ben wiped his face on his sleeve, closed his eyes and sighed. Armie regarded the lake with some longing. They had walked for hours in the hot, humid forest. His clothes irritated him, he was still too hot despite the slight breeze and uncomfortably sticky with sweat. A swim would be very welcome. Perhaps he could even rinse out his clothes and let them dry overnight.

“Ben.” Armie stood up and loosened his shirt and his belt. Ben turned and watched with a frown.  
“I thought you didn’t—”  
“Come swim in the lake with me before we eat.” Armie watched Ben’s face. “Come with me in case there are lake monsters after all.”

Ben grinned and leapt up to take Armie’s outstretched hand. They stripped at the water’s edge and waded in, giggling and shrieking until they got used to the temperature. They raced each other once and Ben won, but Armie said he cheated so they wrestled in the shallows and Armie won. Breathing heavily and grinning, Ben said, “Best of three?”

Armie laughed and launched himself at Ben. Although tall and with the kind of bone structure that promised future brawn, Ben was easily toppled. Armie held him pinned with his head out of the water and tiny ripples just washing at his shoulders, straddling his waist. Ben smiled. “You beat me again,” he said, making a half-hearted attempt to free his hands from where Armie held his wrists above his head. 

Disappointed that the game was over now he had won twice, Armie loosened his grip. Quick as a flask, Ben flipped him onto his back and landed on top, grinning. Armie yelled. “You cheated! Again!”  
“But you like it,” Ben said, smile replaced by a look Armie couldn’t quite place. Hunger, maybe, if he was prey. He shivered and felt his cock respond to Ben’s look despite the cool of the lake water. Armie stopped fighting back and held Ben’s gaze.  
“I want to kiss you,” Ben said, moving closer.  
“I’d sooner kiss a Wookiee,” Armie said, lifting his head to meet Ben, lips almost touching.  
“I’d tell my uncle but you’re not his type.”

Laughing, Ben rolled onto his back again and pulled Armie on top. Arms around each other, they kissed, clumsily at first but soon learning what they liked and what the other liked, and supplying it. Armie knew he was hard and tried to hide it but Ben laughed more at his embarrassment.  
“It’s okay. I want you, Armie. I saw you on that transport and I wanted you.”

Armie went quiet. He thought back to the moment he’d seen this tall, lanky boy on the transport and realised that the unsettling discomfort he’d felt hadn’t been disdain or dislike at all.  
“I think I wanted you too,” he confessed.  
Ben smiled and kissed him softly. “Best of three and we’re one each.”  
“No,” Armie replied. “You cheated. I won.” 

Armie stood up, pushed his wet hair back from his afce and walked up to their primitive camp. Ben followed. “Wait, are you turning me down because I cheated?”  
Armie spun round, laughing. “So you DID cheat! I knew it!”  
Ben ran at Armie and knocked him over. Armie remembered from his training that he should fight the urge to tense up for a fall. But some unseen force cushioned his back from falling onto the ground. Ben lay on top of him, giggling.

Armie sighed. “Can I tell you something and you’re not allowed to laugh at me?”  
“Is it that you secretly like nerf-herders?”  
Armie scowled. “Be serious. Look, I don’t know where or how far you think this is going but we’re supposed to be competing against each other and now we’re doing whatever this is and—”  
“We’re having fun. If the competition thing bothers you, I’ll let you come first.” Ben smirked.  
Armie laughed. “Stars, Ben, you’re ridiculous. Listen to me. Seriously.”  
Ben kissed Armie one more time. “Okay. What’s on your mind, sweetheart?”  
“I have never done this before.”  
“I’ve never done this competition either,” Ben said with a shrug. ”I’m sure it’s no big deal.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Armie said, twisting to free himself from under Ben. “I meant that I have never...” He gestured between them with both hands. “Done THIS before.”  
Ben’s face opened in surprise. “Are you sure? I mean you—”  
“OF COURSE I’M KARKING SURE! Not even a kiss.”  
“—are so hot I thought... Oh.”

They sat near the unlit fire and stared at the sticks until Armie felt his embarrassment wane. “You light the fire and make dinner. I’ll build a shelter.” He pulled on his breeches, boots and vest and went in search of suitable branches in the fading light. By the time he’d found enough and lugged them back to the lakeshore, the fire was spitting and crackling as fat from the roasting meat dripped into the flames. He was hot and filthy again. Ben joined him to help position and secure the branches and soon they had a rough kind of shelter that would give them little protection, but give Armie a lot of reassurance.

“I’m sorry,” Ben said as Armie tied off the last branch.  
“Well. No harm done,” Armie said brightly to hide his disappointment at not being the experienced older man that Ben obviously took him for. They sat by the fire and ate in silence, Armie feeling more and more miserable and angry as the flames died to embers. “Am I not even worth speaking to?” he snapped. “Now you know I’m not what you wanted?”

Ben looked at him with surprise. “No! I mean yes. I mean...” He sighed. “Look, I made you uncomfortable. I could feel you sitting there and seething. And I didn’t know what to say. So. I’m sorry. I like you. I want you. And I’ve never been with anyone either.” Armie sat quietly for a minute. Ben shuffled his feet. “Say something, for kriff sake.”  
“I think,” Armie said, “we are equally matched. What a pair of karking idiots we are.” Armie checked that Ben was smiling. “I’m going to take a very quick dip in the lake before bed. You?”  
“Coming with you,” Ben said, getting to his feet and taking Armie’s hand. “Protect you from the lake monster.”

They rinsed off quickly and returned to the shelter, which (despite his earlier scorn) Ben admitted was more comfortable than sleeping in the open. Armie doubled over one blanket to insulate them from the ground and left one aside to cover them. They lay together, and Ben’s touch and his own growing desire made him forget about the hard ground and the slight chill in the air. He slid his hand down Ben’s stomach and cupped his cock, pressing it against Ben’s belly.  
“I want this.”  
Ben bit his lower lip and moaned at Armie’s touch. “Yes,” he said, and Armie clasped his hand around it and stroked slowly.  
“What do you like?” Armie asked, imagining this young man exploring his own body and almost feeling his head spin at the thought.  
“I like that,” Ben said. “I like your hands. I want to suck you off. Can I do that?”  
Armie gasped at the wave of arousal that rocked him just at Ben’s words. “Kriff, yes,” he said. “Now?”  
“Yes. Turn.”

Ben guided Armie to turn and sink onto hands and knees then lower himself slowly. Armie rested the weight of his chest on Ben’s belly and clasped Ben’s cock again. It felt heavy and hot, more so than his own ever did, and he wondered if Ben wold be disappointed that his own wasn’t as—

Ben closed his mouth around Armie’s cock and all rational (and irrational) thought ceased.

Armie tried to keep up the pace and the pressure on Ben’s cock but his own growing pleasure made it impossible. He held off as long as he could, garbling a warning and mouthing at the skin on Ben’s thigh to stop himself from yelling in joy as he came. 

He lay there for as long as Ben let him, only moving when Ben slapped at his backside. Armie lifted himself off and flopped to the side. “That was...” he said. “Never mind. I’ll show you.”  
He shuffled over Ben and lifted Ben’s cock, taking the head into his mouth and closing his hand around the lower part of the shaft. He bobbed his head and laved with his tongue, remembered about the things he liked to do to himself and used his free hand to fondle Ben’s balls. He felt Ben shift, and Ben’s hand landed in his hair, stroking and gripping. Armie moved faster. Ben cried out. Armie moved back just in time as Ben came, spattering his own chest and Armie’s hand. 

They lay where they were, Armie’s head on Ben’s thigh, Armie’s hand on Ben’s stomach, Ben’s hand in Armie’s hair, until Ben groaned. “Got to move, sweetheart.”  
Armie got up and stretched. “Was that good?”  
Ben grinned, and Armie laughed.

4 days later

Armie and Ben walked towards the campsite, only releasing each other’s hands when it was clear they were about to be noticed. Rae Sloane stood beside a tall blue-haired woman in floating robes and a man who slouched like Ben.

The man gave a lopsided grin. “Still alive, huh? Amilyn was getting worried.”  
“Me?” Amilyn nudged Han’s arm. “Ben, your father was all for calling in Chewie to track you.” Armie stepped forwards and regarded the little group. He smiled at the elegant woman and she smiled back. “Oh! you brought company.”

Rae looked stern. “Armitage, you are forty hours late.”  
“I apologise,” Armie said, trying not to smile too much. “I took the opportunity to build character.”  
Han looked from Ben to Armie and back again, then punched Ben’s arm and laughed. He pulled Ben into a hug. “Welcome back, son.”

“Well.” Rae huffed. “Despite your tardiness, it appears that you both came first. The other two competitors did not return.” Armie raised his eyebrows at the three older people. “They did not survive their encounter with a carnivorous creature, reputed to be force-sensitive, living in a lake.”

Armie turned his eyes to Ben. “Lake,” he said, feeling his stomach rebel. “Monster.”  
Ben did his very best to look innocent. “We didn’t see any hungry lake monsters, did we?”  
“No,” Armie replied. “We did not.”  
“Well then.” Rae pointed at their camp area. “Get the camp organised. We are leaving first thing.”

Armie scuttled off to the little dome tent but there wasn’t much to do. Rae ignored him on her way past to go into the gaudy circus tent with Amilyn. Ben went into the rundown camper with Han, but came out five minutes later.  
“Armie?”  
Armie glared at him. “Was there a lake monster?”  
Ben looked up and around. “Yes and no.”  
“Explain.”  
“There was, but it wasn’t hungry.”  
“And you knew this because... ?”  
“I could sense it.”  
“With this ‘force’ thing you’ve got.”  
“Yes. You’ve got it too. Everyone has it.”  
“So you took me to a monster-infested lake.”  
“It was a nice lake.”  
“Were you going to feed me to the lake monster too?”  
“No-o-o.”  
“You were, weren’t you? You took me there to seduce me and throw me to the lake monster! So that you’d win!”  
“Not true!”  
“Ben Solo, you are the biggest karking cheat this galaxy has ever seen.”  
Ben laughed and pulled Armie close for a hug and a kiss.  
“No I’m not,” he said. “Come and meet my dad.”


End file.
